GM Yury Shulman takes clear first in the U.S. Open! His key victory was in Round 8, in which he defeated GM Alexander Shabalov. In round 9, he met a peaceful Emilio Cordova. When Fedorowicz was unable to win a better endgame against Michael Aigner, Yury's 8/9 was untouchable.

Here is Yury's eighth round game against GM Alexander Shabalov:

Yury was the fourth rated GM in the tournament, but as the top Chicago area player and the youngest GM playing, no one could be surprised by his victory. Yury's been playing excellent chess lately and this victory must make up in part for having come so close to victory at the U.S. Championship in San Diego. The U.S. Open prize check is almost 20K shy of the U.S. Championship grand prize, but his name enters history all the same, along with luminaries such as Fischer (1957) and Reshevsky (1931,1934,1944). Click here for Yury's recent interview with CLO.

No more f4!

Michael Aigner, known as "f-pawn" on the ICC defeated IM Timothy Taylor in the eighth round, and went on to hold a draw against GM John Fedorowicz. Only a few FIDE points away from the FM title, this tourney should easily put him over the top. Here's his game against IM Timothy Taylor.

Michael said that normally he doesn't play 1.d4, but he was attracted
to this line. As for his old favorite and ICC namesake 1.f4, Michael
jokes, "I get hate mail from my coach when I play 1.f4!"Standings